The present invention relates to a data handling system for collecting data relating to workshop activities, such as time-study work measurements, the names of personnel responsible for having carried out work, and like data.
When practising the known and usual procedure in this regard, the work to be carried out in the workshop is first structurized and the various tasks then allotted to various workmen which when commencing their respective tasks are given a time card or work card, which they stamp in a calculator time clock. The time card is also stamped when work is finished, or during breaks in a working period.
When the work allotted is completed, the planning department calculates the total time taken as recorded on the time card. It is highly essential that an engineering or production company is able to compare the total time taken to complete a specific task with a calculated or estimated total time, in order to be able to follow up and change the costs calculated, since these costs form the basis of the company's invoicing or billing and/or the calculated manufacturing costs.
There are two reasons why it is essential to retain the time card. One reason is that the card has recorded thereon data relating to the work to be carried out, and hence the card serves as an instruction sheet and also as a memorandum for the workman concerned. The other reason is because the time card constitutes a document which records the time worked and which can be used to check that the wages of respective workmen have been calculated correctly.
One paramount disadvantage with the described methodology, however, is that the task of manually compiling the information relating to the times (hours, minutes) recorded on the time card together with the respective work load, and then comparing, more or less manually, the estimated time for carrying out the work concerned with the actual time taken and calculating the respective wages is highly time consuming.